Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1887-09-03
.WOMAN'S OPPORTUNITY.
DISCOURSE BY REV. DR.. TALmAeE
AT THE HAMPToNs.

oilo Work and TO Move in Particular
Spheres = Woman sun'ragists Unfit to
Vote or to Hoop House.
THE HAMrToNs, Aug. 2s-"Woman's OPP
1.-The Rcy. T. Do Witt Tnlmage D. D.. today;
|sand bis text; $50 God created man In his
Town image, the image of God created he him;
( male and female created he them" Genesis 4,
|sN. Following Is the sermon in full:
In other words God, who can make no mis-
Stake, made man and woman for specific
|Eworh and to move i'll particular spheres-man
|Nto DO regnant in his realm, woman to be DOM
sinant III hers. Tho boundary line between
EItaly and Switzerland, between England and
sScotlaud, Is not more thoroughly marked
Ethan this distinction between the empire mas:
Eycuilne and the empire feminine 80 en-
5:Erely dissimilar are tile fields to which
|sG6d called them that you can no
moro compare them than you can oxygen
geHd hydrogen, water and grass trees and
stars All this talk about the superiority of
one sex to the other sex Is an everlasting
waste Of Ink and speech. A joweler may
shave scale so delicate that he Gun weigh the
dust OF diamonds; but where are tho scales 30
delicate that you can weigh in them affection
against affection, sentiment against scntl-
'ment, thought against thought soul against
soul, O mans world against wonian's worldf
You como out with your stereotyped remark,
tho man Is superior to woman in intellect,
and then open on my desk the swarthy, iron
typed, thunderbolted writings Of Harriet
Martineau, and Elizabeth Browning, and
/ George Eliot You como on with your stereo-
typed remark about woman's superiority to
ahan in the item of affection; but l ask you
where was there more capacity to lovo than
In John the disciple, and Robert McChcyne
tho Scotchman, and John Symmetrical the
Methodist, and Henry Martin the missionary
The heart of those mon, was SO large, that
after you had rolled into it two hemispheres
: there wne ROOM still left to marshal the
hosts Of heaven and set ap the throne
of the eternal Jehovah. deny TO man the
throne intellectual I deny to woman tho
throne nffecsional. No human phraseology
will ever define tho spheres, while there Is AL
Intuition by which we know when man Is
In his realm, and when woman is In her
realm, and when either of Thorn rs out of It.
No bum cling legislature ought to attempt to
mako definition or to say: 3This Is tho line
md that Is the line." My theory is that
woman wants to vote sire ought to vote, md
that il man wants to embroider and keep
house he ought to be allowed to eInbroider
and keep house. There nro masculine women
and there are effeminate nleH. ky theory Is
that you have no right to interfere with any
oneS doing nything that is righteous. AL
Hos tUacl ,i,,vf ioht oil
/ by legislation how high brown thrasher
should Ay,e or how deep @ trout should
plunge, as to try to seek out the height or the
depth of woman's duty. The question OF ca
pacity will settle finally the whole question,
the whole subject. When woman is pre-
pared to preach she will preach, and neither
conference nor presbytery can hinder her.
When woman is prepared to move in high
sests commercial spheres she will have great
Influence on the exchange, and no boards of
Grade can binder hey: /; want woman tc
lint heart md ainecal overly
any barrier that politicians may set up, and
that nothing can keep her back or keep her
down but the question of incapacity.
There are women, know, Of most unde-
siroblc nature, who wander up and down the
CONTEMPLATING no homes of their own, or
forsaking their own homes-talking about
their rights; and VIC know very well that they
themselves are flt neither to VOTE nor fit to
keep house. Their mission seems to be to
huniiliate the two sexes ut the thought Of
what any one of US might become. No one
would want to live under the laws that such
women would enact, or to have cast upon
society tho children that such women would
raise. But / shall show YOU this morning
thut the best rights that woman can own, she
already has in hor possession; that her po-
sition In this country at this time JIG not ons
of commiseration but one of congratnlation;
that the grandeur and power Of herrealm
hove never yet been appreciated; that she sits
today OH throne SO high, that oil the thrones
of earth piled OH top of each other would not
make for her footstool. Here is the platform
on which she stands. Away down below it
are the ballot bcI and TIE congressional
asscmblage and the legislative hall. Woman
always has voted and always will vote. Our
greatgrandfathors thought they were by their
votes putting Washington into tho prcsiden-
tial chair No. His mother, by the princi-
pies she taught him, and by the habits she in
culcatcd, made him president It WINS
Christian mothers hand dropping tho ballot
when Lord Bncon wrote, and Newton philoso-
phizcd, and Alfred the Great governed, and
Jonathan Edwards thundcred Of judgment to
come. How many men there have been in
high political station, who would have been
insufficient to stand tho test to which their
moral principle was put, had 1t not been for
wifes voice that encouraged them to doright,
and a wife's prayer that sounded louder than
tho clamor of partisanshipI Why, my
friends, the right Of suffrage, as We men ex-
ercisc it, seems to be fesblc thing. You,
Christian man, come up to the ballot box and
drop your vote. Right after you comes
libertinc, or sot-tho offscouriIIg Of the
strcet-and be drops his vote; and his vote
counteracts yours. But il in the quiet
of home life daughter by her Christian
dcnleanor, vito by her industry, a mother
by. her faithfulness, casts vote in the
right direction, then nothing can resist it,
and the influence Of thut vote will throb
through the etsrnities.
NV chief anxiety then Is, not that woman
have other rights accorded her; but that she,
by the grace of God, rise up TO the apprecia-
ton OF the glorious rights SHE already pos
sesses This morning ] shall only have time
10 speak OIL oiic SIdHi tihu OIL soooi oi"e5 A46ns
that cvcry woman has, and that is TO mako
homo happy. That realm no one has ever
disputed with her. Men may como home at
noon or at night, and they tarry compare
lively little while; but she, oil day long.
governs 1t, beauties it, sanctifles it. 1t Is
within her power 60 make It tho most attract
i've place on EARTH It is the only calm har-
Dor in this world. You know as 'rell as do,
that this outside world and the business
world is q long scene of jostle and contea-
tion. Tho man who has dollar struggles to
keep It; the man who has it not struggles to
get it. Prices up. Prices down. Losses
Gains Nisrepresentations Geugings. I'm
dersallins. Buyers depreciating; salesmeI
e1aggerating. Tenants seeking less rents
landlords demanding moro. Gold fldgety.
Struggles about Office Men who are In trying
To keen in: men out trying to get in Slips